‘Thank You, and Keep it Up’

I am writing to you to convey my feelings towards your 514™ X Slim Straight jean. If finances allow it to be so I will never purchase another piece of denim.

September 2009 found me preparing for a three-month trip to Europe. I had been saving for a few years working meager jobs at restaurants, cafes, and two terms of service with AmeriCorps, and finally the time had come.

I purchased the 514 in Denver, CO where I was living at the time and it survived impeccably well my lifestyle there, which included riding my bicycle everywhere I sent – a feat no other jean had yet been able to accomplish.

So when I was figuring out the contents of my rucksack, I took a risk and didn’t include any pants; thus relying heavily, entirely, in fact, on the Levi’s 514.

Everyday, and often through the night, as well, I wore that pair of jeans – the same pair of jeans I am wearing as I write this missive.

Now, going on 1 year old, they are taking me through life patched only in two places: the front right thigh and the left back pocket. They don’t quite fit the same as they did upon purchase – where, upon advice given to me from an employee of yours, I sat in a bath full of hot water for 1 hour – but they fit nonetheless, showing all of the love and abuse they have been through: a notebook always in the back left pocket, miles of walking a day for 90 consecutive days, the awkward positions unfit for sleep on many a train and plane, and cups and cups of coffee spills.

Included is a photograph of me on the beach in France posing with two friends. I, obviously enough, am the bearded one in the middle.

I believe that jeans are more than just twilled hard-wearing cotton fabric. They will, if you allow them, become a part of the wearer themselves, as much or more than any bill fold or pair of glasses.